Books
Historic Mechanics' Institute looks like a library, feels like a library with so much to offer with its fine collection and provoking programming. This gem is not to be missed. - Peter Wiley, Chairman Emeritus, John Wiley and Sons
Mechanics' Institute Library has over 100,000 circulating materials in its collection and continues to grow. We serve the general reader with a wide, diverse, and eclectic collection covering a vast array of subjects and interests.
See a selection of our collection below and visit our Catalog to explore even more.
Mechanics' Members Reads
What Mechanics' Institute members told us they're reading right now.
Creation lake : a novel
By Kushner, Rachel, author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
The debt to pleasure : a novel
By Lanchester, John.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
The years of rice and salt
By Robinson, Kim Stanley, author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
Divine blue light (for John Coltrane)
By Alexander, Will, author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
My struggle. Book six
By Knausgård, Karl Ove, 1968- author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
Raising hare : a memoir
By Dalton, Chloe, author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
Orbital : a novel
By Harvey, Samantha, 1975- author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
The outcast dead : a Ruth Galloway mystery
By Griffiths, Elly.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
Lessons in chemistry : [a novel]
By Garmus, Bonnie, author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
The way of all flesh
By Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902, author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
Roadside picnic
By Strugat͡skiĭ, Arkadiĭ, 1925-1991, author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
Who is government? : the untold story of public service
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
We solve murders
By Osman, Richard, 1970- author.
What MI members told us they're reading right now.
Staff Picks
Books, music, and movie recommendations from Mechanics' staff
Babel : or the necessity of violence : an arcane history of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
By Kuang, R. F. (Rebecca F.), author.
Picked by Andy, Program Director
A line in the world : a year on the North Sea coast
By Nors, Dorthe, 1970- author.
Picked by Justin, Library Intern
New Fiction
See more new fiction in our catalog
Vera, or faith : a novel
By Shteyngart, Gary, 1972- author.
"The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world"--
The Möbius book
By Lacey, Catherine, 1985- author.
Adrift after a sudden breakup and its ensuing depression, the novelist Catherine Lacey began cataloguing the wreckage of her life and the beauty of her friendships, a practice that eventually propagated fiction both entirely imagined and strangely true. Betrayed by the mercurial partner she had trusted with a shared mortgage and suddenly catapulted into the unknown, Lacey's appetite vanished, a visceral reminder of the teenage emaciation that came when she stopped believing in God. Through relationships, travel, reading, and memories of her religious fanaticism, Lacey charts the contours of faith's absence and reemergence. She and her characters recall gnostic experiences with animals, close encounters with male anger, grief-driven lust, and the redemptive power of platonic love and of narrative itself. The result is a book of uncommon vulnerability and wisdom, and heartbreaking -- and heart-mending -- exploration of endings and beginnings. A hybrid work with no beginning or ending, readable from either side, The Möbius Book troubles the line between memory and fiction with an openhearted defense of faith's power, and inherent danger.
Proof : a thriller
By Cowan, Jon, author.
"As a disgraced lawyer with a drinking problem that he doesn't view as a problem, Jake West is coasting on what's left of his charm and money. He used to be the kind of lawyer who could convince anyone of anything--until he decided to take on his father's biggest client and prove his dad was corrupt. Now Jake finds himself almost at rock bottom, and that's before his ex-best friend is murdered and Jake is accused of the crime. In a desperate bid to save himself, Jake must sober up and search for the real killer, whom he suspects might be hidden in one of the case files of his father's illustrious law firm. As he delves into a labyrinth of lies and corruption, Jake teams up with an eclectic group of equally broken people as they all must skirt the law in order to find the proof he needs . . . no matter the personal or professional cost"--
Flashlight : a novel
By Choi, Susan, 1969- author.
"One night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the beach. He's carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later Louisa is found washed up by the tide, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old. In chapters that shift from one member to the next, turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Susan Choi's Flashlight chases the shockwaves of one family's catastrophe. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, an ethnic Korean born and raised in Japan, lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to the DPRK. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne's illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences. What really happened to Louisa's father? Why did he take Louisa and her mother to Japan just before he disappeared? And how can we love, or make sense of our lives, when there's so much we can't see?" -- Publisher annotation.
Fair play : a novel
By Hegarty, Louise, author.
"A group of friends gather at an Airbnb on New Year's Eve. It is Benjamin's birthday, and his sister Abigail is throwing him a jazz-age Murder Mystery themed party. As the night plays out, champagne is drunk, hors d'oeuvres consumed, and relationships forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses the wrong person; someone else's heart is broken. In the morning, all of them wake up--except Benjamin. As Abigail attempts to wrap her mind around her brother's death, an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin's killer. In this mansion, suddenly complete with a butler, gardener and housekeeper, everyone is a suspect, and nothing is quite as it seems. Will the culprit be revealed? And how can Abigail, now alone, piece herself back together in the wake of this loss?"--
Murder takes a vacation : a novel
By Lippman, Laura, 1959- author.
"Highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman returns with an irresistible mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a former private investigator and middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery...that only she can solve"--
The fact checker : a novel
By Kelley, Austin, 1973- author.
"An endearingly obsessive fact-checker stumbles around New York in search of truth, meaning, and a woman." -Kirkus
Bury our bones in the midnight soil
By Schwab, Victoria, author.
"From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1827. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth"--
The case of the missing maid : a novel
By Osler, Rob, author.
Harriet Morrow has long been drawn to the idea of whizzing around the city on her bicycle as a professional detective, solving crimes for a living without having to take a husband ... she seizes the chance when the prestigious Prescott Agency hires her as its first woman operative.
Under the eye of the big bird : a novel
By Kawakami, Hiromi, 1958- author.
"In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of "Mothers." Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings-but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world. Unfolding over fourteen interconnected episodes spanning geological eons, at once technical and pastoral, mournful and utopic, Under the Eye of the Big Bird presents an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it"--
The emperor of gladness : a novel
By Vuong, Ocean, 1988- author.
"A year in the life of a wayward young man in New England who, by chance, becomes the caretaker for an eighty-two-year-old widow living with dementia, powering a story of friendship, loss, and how much we're willing to risk to claim one of life's most treasured mercies: a second chance"--
Atmosphere : a love story
By Reid, Taylor Jenkins, author.
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA's space shuttle program.
Bug Hollow : a novel
By Huneven, Michelle, 1953- author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut
"A family novel that follows the Samuelson clan over four decades as they hurt and heal one another"--
The man made of smoke : a novel
By North, Alex, 1976- author.
"Dan Garvie's life has been haunted by the crime he witnessed as a child--narrowly escaping an encounter with a notorious serial killer. He has dedicated his life since to becoming a criminal profiler, eager to seek justice for innocent victims. So when his father passes away under suspicious circumstances, Dan revisits his small island community, determined to uncover the truth about his death.
The bright years : a novel
By Damoff, Sarah, author.
This multigenerational novel follows the Bright family across four generations as they navigate secrets, addiction, and unexpected reunions.
Food person : a novel
By Roberts, Adam D., author.
Isabella Pasternack is a food person. She revels in the beauty of a perfectly cooked egg, she daydreams about her first meal at Chez Panisse, and every inch of her tiny apartment teems with cookbooks, from Prune to Cooking by Hand to Roast Chicken and Other Stories. What Isabella is not, unfortunately, is a gainfully employed person.
The crash
By McFadden, Freida, author.
There's no place like home... Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not.
Isola : a novel
By Goodman, Allegra, author. aut
"Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian--an enigmatic and volatile man--spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian's servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue. Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she'd never before needed. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival"--
New Non-fiction
Toni at Random : the iconic writer's legendary editorship
By Williams, Dana A., 1972- author.
"An insightful exploration that unveils the lesser-known dimensions of this legendary writer and her legacy, revealing the cultural icon's profound impact as a visionary editor who helped define an important period in American publishing and literature. A multifaceted genius, Toni Morrison transcended her role as an author, helping to shape an important period in American publishing and literature as an editor at one of the nation's most prestigious publishing houses. While Toni Morrison's literary achievements are widely celebrated, her editorial work is little known. Drawing on extensive research and firsthand accounts, this comprehensive study discusses Morrison's remarkable journey from her early days at Random House to her emergence as one of its most important editors. During her tenure in editorial, Morrison refashioned the literary landscape, working with important authors, including Toni Cade Bambara, Leon Forrest, and Lucille Clifton, and empowering cultural icons such as Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali to tell their stories on their own terms. Toni Morrison herself had great enthusiasm about Dana Williams's work on this story, generously sharing memories and thoughts with the author over the years, even giving her the book's title. From the manuscripts she molded, the authors she nurtured, and the readers she inspired, Toni at Random demonstrates how Toni Morrison has influenced American culture beyond the individual titles or authors she published. Morrison's contribution as an editor transformed the broader literary landscape and deepened the cultural conversation. With unparalleled insight and sensitivity, Toni at Random charts this editorial odyssey."--
The club : where American women artists found refuge in Belle Époque Paris
By Dasal, Jennifer, 1980- author.
"In Belle Époque Paris, the Eiffel Tower was newly built, France was experiencing remarkable political stability, and American women were painting the town and gathering at a female-only Residence known as The American Girls' Club in Paris. Opened in 1893, The Club was the center of expatriate living and of dedication to a calling in the fine arts, and singularly harbored a generation of independent, talented, and driven American women. Now in The Club, curator, art historian, and podcast host Jennifer Dasal presents the never-before-told story of the Club, the philanthropists who created it, and the artists it housed. These women forged connections in the arts and letters with luminaries like Auguste Rodin and Gertrude Stein or became activists through their relationships with the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst. But just as importantly, these women's lives revealed the power of the Club itself, and the way that having a safe home for single women of ambition allowed them to grow as teachers, artists, suffragists, and people." --
The Möbius book
By Lacey, Catherine, 1985- author.
Adrift after a sudden breakup and its ensuing depression, the novelist Catherine Lacey began cataloguing the wreckage of her life and the beauty of her friendships, a practice that eventually propagated fiction both entirely imagined and strangely true. Betrayed by the mercurial partner she had trusted with a shared mortgage and suddenly catapulted into the unknown, Lacey's appetite vanished, a visceral reminder of the teenage emaciation that came when she stopped believing in God. Through relationships, travel, reading, and memories of her religious fanaticism, Lacey charts the contours of faith's absence and reemergence. She and her characters recall gnostic experiences with animals, close encounters with male anger, grief-driven lust, and the redemptive power of platonic love and of narrative itself. The result is a book of uncommon vulnerability and wisdom, and heartbreaking -- and heart-mending -- exploration of endings and beginnings. A hybrid work with no beginning or ending, readable from either side, The Möbius Book troubles the line between memory and fiction with an openhearted defense of faith's power, and inherent danger.
Opening repertoire : London system
By Lakdawala, Cyrus, author.
Chess theory ebbs and flows. Lines that have been discarded for decades suddenly become all the rage and everyone starts playing them. A case in point are queenside openings where White plays Bf4. For years these had been the chess equivalent of flared trousers but in recent times they have been reinvented and even the best players in the world are now sporting them. The London System (1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 followed by 3 Bf4) is at the forefront of this renaissance. Formerly regarded as a quiet backwater, useful only to avoid theory, it is now a hot topic. A big advantage of playing the London is that (unlike other lines these days) it is highly unlikely you will get caught out in the opening. White’s position is very solid and the early play revolves far more around plans and concepts than having to defuse engine-inspired bombs that have been lobbed into your position. In this book Cyrus Lakdawala carves out a complete repertoire for White in the London and familiarises the reader with all the latest concepts. --
Empty vessel : the story of the global economy in one barge
By Kumekawa, Ian, author.
"The rise of globalization and financialization as seen from a barge--one Swedish barge, to be exact, built in 1979. What do a barracks for British troops in the Falklands War, a floating jail off the Bronx, and temporary housing for VW factory workers in Germany have in common? The Balder Scapa: a single barge that served all three roles. Though the name would eventually change to Finnboda 12. And then to Safe Esperia. And later on, to the Bibby Resolution. And after that . . . In short, a vessel with so many names, and so many fates, that to keep it in our sights--as the protagonist of this fascinating economic parable--Ian Kumekawa has no choice but to call it, simply, the Vessel. Despite its sturdy steel structure, weighing 9,500 deadweight tons, the Vessel is a figure as elusive and abstract as the offshore market it comes to embody: a world of island tax havens, exploited labor forces, free banking zones, Thatcherism, Reaganomics, and mass incarceration, where even the prisoners are held offshore. Fitted with modular shipping containers, themselves the product of standardized global trade, the ship could become whatever the market demanded. Whether caught in an international dispute involving Hong Kong, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Virgin Islands--to be settled in an English court of law--or flying yet another foreign "flag of convenience" to mask its ownership--the barge is ever a container for forces much larger than even its hulking self. Empty Vessel is a jaw-dropping microhistory that speaks volumes about the global economy as a whole. In following the Vessel-and its Sister Vessel, built alongside it in Stockholm-from one thankless task to the next, Kumekawa connects the dots of a neoliberal world order in the making, where regulation is for suckers and "Made in USA" feels almost quaint"--
Spritz : Italy's most iconic aperitivo cocktail, with recipes
By Baiocchi, Talia, author.
"A narrative-driven book on the surprising history and current revival of spritz cocktails (a wine-based drink served as an aperitif), with 50 recipes, including both historical classics and modern updates"--
I regret almost everything : a memoir
By McNally, Keith, 1951- author.
"The entertaining, irreverent, and surprisingly moving memoir by the visionary restaurateur behind such iconic New York institutions as Balthazar and Pastis ... taking us from his gritty London childhood in the fifties to his serendipitous arrival in New York, where he founded the era-defining establishments the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg,and Nell's. Eloquent and opinionated, Keith McNally writes about the angst of being a child actor, his lack of insights from traveling overland to Kathmandu at nineteen, the instability of his two marriages and family relationships, his devastating stroke, and his Instagram notoriety"--
One day, everyone will have always been against this
By El Akkad, Omar, 1982- author.
"On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: "One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times. As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human -- not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage. This is El Akkad's nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time." --
Pasta every day : make it, shape it, sauce it, eat it
By Feinstein, Meryl, author.
"In Pasta Every Day, Meryl Feinstein has created the world's easiest-to-follow guide to making pasta doughs, shapes, fillings, and sauces. A celebrated pasta instructor, professional pasta maker, and founder of Pasta Social Club, she has years of experience helping thousands of cooks bring the pleasure of fresh pasta home."--Publisher.
Automation and the future of work
By Benanav, Aaron, author.
"In Automation and the Future of Work, Aaron Benanav uncovers the structural economic trends that will shape our working lives far into the future. What social movements, he asks, are required to propel us into post-scarcity, if technological innovation alone can't deliver it? In response to calls for a universal basic income that would maintain a growing army of redundant workers, he offers a counter-proposal"--
How countries go broke : the big cycle
By Dalio, Ray, 1949- author.
"For decades, politicians, policymakers, and investors have deba
Cryptic : from Voynich to the Angel Diaries, the story of the world's mysterious manuscripts
By Shaw, Garry J., author.
Nexus : a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI
By Harari, Yuval N., author
Capitalism and its critics : a history : from the Industrial Revolution to AI
By Cassidy, John, 1963- author.
When the going was good : an editor's adventures during the last golden age of magazines
By Carter, Graydon, author.